The English Canon Law Relating to Suicide Victims

2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte L Wright
Keyword(s):  
Canon Law ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Civil Law ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Current Position ◽  
Electoral Roll ◽  
Attitudes Towards Suicide ◽  
The Law ◽  
Sound Mind ◽  
The Church

Society has historically viewed suicide with hostility and fear. For centuries this hostility was reflected in the English civil law, which condemned suicide as homicide, and in the Church's position towards suicide victims, which historically considered suicide to be a mortal sin. Under the current canon law, set out in Canon B 38, it is the duty of the minister to bury all parishioners, those who die in the parish, or those entered on the electoral roll of the parish according to the rites of the Church of England, except for (among others) those who ‘being of sound mind have laid violent hands upon themselves’. This canon has come under increasing scrutiny in recent years as society's attitudes towards suicide have become more tolerant. As a result, General Synod recently voted that this canon should be amended. This article explores the development of the law relating to suicide victims in order to understand the Church's current position. It then considers the shortcomings of the current canon law and reviews the position adopted by the Roman Catholic and Methodist churches. Finally, it examines the proposals for changing Canon B 38.

‘Anglicanism’ and the Origins of the Church of England

2014 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 319-334
Author(s):  
Peter McCullough
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Canon Law ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
The Church ◽  
Historical Sketch ◽  
Formative Years

This article aims to provide an introductory historical sketch of the origins of the Church of England as a background for canon law in the present-day Anglican Communion and the Roman Catholic Church. Written by a specialist for non-specialists, it summarises the widely held view among ecclesiastical historians that if the Church of England could ever be said to have had a ‘normative’ period, it is not to be found in its formative years in the middle decades of the sixteenth century, and that, in particular, the origins of the Church of England and of what we now call ‘Anglicanism’ are not the same thing.

The Church of England and the Law of Divorce since 1837: Marriage Discipline, Ecclesiastical Law and the Establishment

1994 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 625-641
Author(s):  
Bruce S. Bennett
Keyword(s):  
Canon Law ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Essential Point ◽  
Ecclesiastical Law ◽  
The Status ◽  
Practical Reality ◽  
State Changes ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Church

Ever since Henry VIII, the law of marriage has occupied a special place in the relationship between the Church of England and the state. Changes made to the law since 1857 have raised far-reaching and difficult questions about the nature of this relationship, involving the status of canon law. Marriage in church has remained, perhaps even more than the other rites of passage, an essential point at which the Church of England still touches the lives of great numbers of the otherwise unchurched, and these questions have thus impinged on the practical reality of the Church's work.

The Development of Canonical Jurisprudence in the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England

Ecclesiology ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 308-325
Author(s):  
Gordon Arthur
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Canon Law ◽  
Legal Theory ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Common Law ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
The Church ◽  
Degree Of Similarity

AbstractThis paper offers a theological examination of the legal theory underlying the Canon Law of the Roman Catholic Church from the time of Gratian onwards, and of the Church of England since the Reformation, comparing the latter with parallel developments in English Common Law. Despite their very different contexts, structures and emphases, a surprising degree of similarity emerges, which may provide a basis for further discussion and convergence in the future.

The Catholic Tribunal System in the British Isles

1991 ◽  
Vol 2 (9) ◽  
pp. 213-221
Author(s):  
Gordon Read
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Canon Law ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Common Law ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
Code Of Canon Law ◽  
Judicial Decisions ◽  
Church Life ◽  
The Church

“The claim to have succeeded in covering every side of Church life at the conclusion of the herculean labour of codification on this scale would indeed be a bold one, and one very uncongenial to the spirit of English law”, comments the report entitled ‘The Canon Law of the Church of England’. Despite the production of a Code of Canon Law for the Church of England, the provisions of law as applying to the Church of England are much more complex, involving not only the provisions of the Code, but also Common Law, Statute Law, judicial decisions and occasional survivals from Mediaeval Canon Law. For this reason although the ecclesiastical courts of the Church of England and of the Roman Catholic Church have common origins and features, there are also many differences, not only in structure, but in the material that comes before them.

Twentieth-Century Revision of Canon Law in the Church of England

2000 ◽  
Vol 5 (26) ◽  
pp. 353-368
Author(s):  
Canon Peter Boulton
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Canon Law ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Church ◽  
Established Church

This study describes and evaluates the Church of England's revision of its canon law in the twentieth century, concentrating on the period from 1939 to 1969. By way of introduction it should be said that this assessment is but part of a larger study which proceeds on two planes of comparison. In the larger study, revision by the Church of England is laid horizontally alongside another Anglican revision carried out as a result of disestablishment of the Church in Wales in 1920, and also the two revisions of Roman Catholic canon law leading to the promulgation of the Codex luris Canonici in 1917 and 1983. Vertically, the history of the revision of English canon law over the previous four hundred years gives some idea of what needed revision, and the difficulties in carrying it out under the constraints of being an established church. In this article, however, only the process of revision by the Church of England in the twentieth century is discussed.

Gospel and Order

1997 ◽  
Vol 4 (20) ◽  
pp. 659-663 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Great Britain ◽  
Canon Law ◽  
Joint Venture ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Systematic Theology ◽  
Sharp Focus ◽  
The Church

In his obituary to the late Chancellor Garth Moore, Chancellor Quentin Edwards QC recalled one of Garth's constant sayings: ‘It may be possible to be a theologian without being a canonist; but it is impossible to be a canonist without being a theologian’. The recent Lyndwood Lecture marking, as it did, the first joint venture between this Society and the Canon Law Society of Great Britain and Ireland, brought into sharp focus some of the differences between Anglican and Roman Catholic canonists. The laws of the latter reveal a more visible and systematic theology whereas those of the Church of England are unashamedly positivist both in form and ostensible origin. This paper seeks to consider the role of the Gospel in the contemporary governance of the Church of England and to isolate—but not resolve— certain of the ‘practical parish problems’ which will fall to be addressed at the forthcoming residential conference.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document